Dine Out Maine: The Fresh Batch: Good food, nice variety in a friendly space

The Fresh Batch looks like it belongs in a college town, peopled with students hunched over their laptops and nursing their espresso drinks or burritos at any time of day or night.

But the restaurant resides in Freeport, sandwiched between retail outlets just off Main Street. And the clientele ranges from the very young to folks who could be their grandparents and everyone in between.

Additional Photos

The furnishings at The Fresh Batch combine light wood with a rainbow of bright pastel paint, giving the place a cheerful whimsy. The toddler gym is a nice feature for children. Gabe Souza/Staff Photographer

That’s not surprising, given the assorted menu that says the eatery emphasizes local sources and organic products, free Wi-Fi, an indoor play space for toddlers, a spacious arrangement of brightly painted tables, a friendly staff and a central location.

Its website says the food is innovative. We stopped in on two different nights in March to get a sense of the dinner options, and we had satisfying meals both times. But the food was far from original.

Miniature meatballs and lots of pearl pasta fortified a cup of Italian wedding soup. The garden vegetable soup contained chunks of carrots, green beans and summer squash in a tomato broth (cup $3.49; bowl $4.99). Neither soup bore that unforgivable over-salted taste found in many versions, and we were surprised to learn later that the soups are not made in-house. Whatever the source, it’s a decent one.

A housemade veggie burger ($7.99) had a black bean base seasoned with scallions and Old Bay. The burger was robust but a little mushy. Nevertheless, topped with lettuce and tomato on a grilled bun and doctored with a little mayo and ketchup, it disappeared quickly.

The reuben ($8.99) — chunks of corned beef tucked between grilled marble rye, with sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Russian dressing — wasn’t the impossibly overstuffed version from a classic Jewish deli, but it was a fair approximation.

Spinach salad with almonds and dried cranberries was fresh and ample ($7.99), and was served with a delicious and tangy homemade sesame vinaigrette. A spicy buffalo chicken sandwich ($8.99) with bleu cheese dressing was no more than one might expect, but it did not disappoint.

The taco salad special was the winning main dish. A big spread of mixed greens was strewn with mozzarella cheese (I would have preferred something sharper), black olives and a tomato pico salsa, all topped with several warmed slices of mildly spiced but tender beef ($9.99).

My overarching impression of The Fresh Batch’s food is that a number of the items we tried could have used more punch. A chili doesn’t have to knock you over with heat, but it should have a character beyond tomato (cup, $4.49). A specialty quiche — we tried their “Fantastico” — ought to have a distinctive meld that rises above egg, herbs, tomato ($6.99) and Asiago cheese. A homemade pico salsa ought to make one pucker from its piquancy.

Yet so many other things hum at Fresh Batch that it’s hard to find much fault. The furnishings combine light wood with a rainbow of bright pastel paint, giving the place a cheerful whimsy. The toddler gym is a boon for parents of small children. A small bowl of fresh fruit comes with the quiches.

“The whole family can eat here and be happy,” says the eatery’s website, and that mission seems to hold true.

Sides for the sandwiches included a choice of carrot sticks that were hand-cut, sweet and snappy (nothing like those stubs from the plastic bag), homemade pasta salad or standard potato chips. The restaurant lives up to its name, too — many items are freshly prepared. This includes the homemade, fresh-squeezed lemonade. Go for it.

All this indicates a lot of thought and care behind the scenes. Thank goodness for casual restaurants like this one that pay attention to the call for more fruit and vegetables. Americans can’t regularly have “fries with that” without paying the price.

At The Fresh Batch, you order at the counter and take a number to a table of your choice. A server delivers the items to your table, with real silverware and plates. Nothing is disposable except paper napkins.

Table bussing is your job. The system is efficient, but know ahead that the food usually comes all at once.

This spot fills a niche — a few niches, in fact — in a section of Freeport busy with tourist traffic in summer. One can drop in seven days a week for breakfast, lunch or dinner. The Fresh Batch serves eggs, espresso drinks, salads, hot and cold sandwiches, soups, burritos, baked goods and homemade gelato, some of it booze-infused.

Yes, The Fresh Batch has a limited liquor license — another plus. Harried parents can linger over wine or beer while junior crawls up the mini-slide or teens tuck into their gelato. The restaurant is also a good, quick option before a movie at the new Nordica Theater.

The potential is high for this spot, which opened last July, to be a very successful endeavor. It’s already doing a good job offering fresh and healthy fare. Keep it on your Freeport radar.

Nancy Heiser is a freelance writer. She can be reached at: nancyheiser.com

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